Nairobi - A United Nations-backed operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo has failed to neutralize the rebel group it targeted and exacerbated the humanitarian situation, according to a report due to be presented to the UN Security Council Wednesday. The UN peacekeeping force in DR Congo (MONUC) has come under repeated fire this year for backing operations aimed at snuffing out the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was formed in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan massacre.
The FDLR - formed by Hutus who fled Rwanda after taking part in the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and ethnic Hutus - has been at the centre of over a decade of conflict in DR Congo.
The report by a panel of UN-mandated experts said all the operation had done was allow the rival National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), which has ended its rebellion, to cooperate with the army, to take over illegal mining interests in the North and South Kivu provinces.
"Military operations ... have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Kivus, and have resulted in an expansion of CNDP military influence in the region," the report said.
The Tutsi CNDP caused chaos in DR Congo last year when it launched a major offensive against the army, but joined the army when the Congolese government and Rwanda struck a deal on hunting down the FDLR.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled their homes due to the operation, the report said.
Earlier this year, aid agencies and UN officials said that civilians have been murdered, assaulted and raped by both the army and the FDLR, who indulge in revenge attacks against the local populace.
MONUC last month suspended cooperation with an army brigade responsible for the deaths of 62 civilians, but the new report said that Bosco Ntaganda - a high-ranking CNDP commander wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes - was still leading operations against the FDLR.
The 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force has repeatedly said it would not work with the army if Ntaganda was involved in the operation.
The FDLR funds its operations through the illegal mining of gold and also cassiterite and coltan, which are used widely in mobile phones, in the provinces of North and South Kivu.
The report said the group could earn as much as several million dollars each year from mining, by selling minerals onto international companies.
